Japanese national wanted for fraud deported

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Immigration said Tuesday it has deported a Japanese fugitive wanted in his country for defrauding a compatriot of half a million yen and banned the foreigner from coming back to the Philippines.

Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said Ryuchi Ohira, 45, was flown back on Feb. 15 to Tokyo on a Japan Airlines flight after the BI Board of Immigration issued a summary deportation order against him.

He added that the board also ordered his inclusion in the BI blacklist, thus banning him from re-entering the country.

David said members of the BI fugitive search unit arrested Ohira on Nov. 21, 2011 at a house along Dr. J. Garbriel St. in Baclaran, Parañaque City. His passport expired on Jan. 4.

“He was arrested at the request of the Japanese embassy in Manila who sought the bureau’s help in locating the fugitive’s whereabouts,” David said.

Lawyer Maria Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang, BI acting intelligence chief, said Ohira was wanted to stand trial before a district court in Kofu, Japan where he was charged with fraud and falsification of sealed private document.

Ohira had allegedly withdrawn 500,000 yen from the postal savings account of another Japanese national by falsifying the withdrawal slip and signature of the depositor on July 22, 2005 in Yamanashi prefecture.

Mangrobang said Ohira had been on the wanted list of the Japanese police since September last year when the Kofu court issued a warrant for his arrest. A check of the bureau’s records showed the fugitive arrived in Manila on Oct. 29, 2011, apparently to flee prosecution in Japan.